We drove up to LA to hangout with Jamie’s cousins on Saturday night. After a night of arcade games, Thai food, Lee’s coffee and beers, we headed home around 2:30 in the morning. For some reason, a few hours earlier while we were hanging out, we decided it would be a good idea to go hiking near the Hollywood sign in the morning. Around 3am I called up my old friend Rob, he said he had been awake and was down to hike. We got home and closed our eyes for about 30 minutes, then got ready to drive an hour and a half back to LA.

Runyon Canyon is located up in the Hollywood hills. Finding parking and then walking to the trail head is a challenge in itself. I heard it’s frequented by a lot of famous people but we didn’t see any. Brenda Song was there a few hours after we left though.

The main reason we came out was to hangout with Jamie’s family who had come down from the bay area. Jeselle, her boyfriend Randy, and her brother Jan met us on the trail. She almost walked right past us too.

You know that feeling when you’ve been up more than 24 hours. Your body knows it’s tired but your mind doesn’t want to admit it. Yeah, that feeling probably wasn’t the best way to start a hike, but we kept pushing forward anyways.

Runyon Canyon has a few different trails. Some are easier but we ended up going on one of the more difficult ones that went up to the peaks. In a few spots the trail gets really steep and you end up almost climbing. I remember there were times when I was just l The loose dirt and rocks didn’t provide much confidence either. Luckily no one in our group had any real falls or slips and the views were very much worth it.

The Hollywood sign was visible for most of the hike but too far away for my prime lens to really get a picture worth taking. The LA skyline in the distance however, made for a great backdrop for some photos.

Rob was in good spirits for someone who was part of #teamnosleep.  For the past few weeks Rob has taken a huge interest in hiking.  I would say he hikes almost every day if he can.  For someone who didn’t sleep the night before, he sure did run ahead a lot.

There was a huge puddle that Randy decided he had to jump. He made it.

Not sure who put this LOVE sign up, but it was pretty cool.  There were a bunch of padlocks on the fence very reminiscent of the love-locks in Paris.  There were many dogs roaming around on the trail.  It’s actually a off-leash area.  Made us wish we brought Jet, but we had other plans for the rest of the day where we couldn’t bring him.

Near the end of the hike we found this bench and proceeded to take a bunch of pictures.

It was great meeting these guys. Jan had never even met his cousins before and Randy hadn’t met any of us either, so it was an interesting introduction.

We headed out to eat and then back to our cars to go wash up after the hike.  On the way around I took some photos of some people I thought looked interesting to me.  LA is full of interesting.

We had just left the hiking area when I saw the guy below running around recording himself with a GoPro and yelling while balancing a bottle on his head.  So naturally, my instinct was to get as close to him as I could to take a picture.  Just as I thought things couldn’t get weirder, he immediately spotted me and told me to wait as he pulled out two hula hoops….
As we were waiting for the girls to buy some snacks from a fruit stand, this guy below came up to us after an attractive woman walked by in some yoga pants. “How you guys doing? This is a great place to stand and wait to take pictures isn’t it?” he said with a smile, sun glasses tilted and staring right ahead.  I told him “yeah it is” and I asked him to pose for me. Haha.

We ended up going to LACMA, the LA County Museum of Art.  Just outside and across the street, a section of the Berlin wall is on display.  It’s been here for a few years but this was the first time I’ve seen it in person. Crazy to see such an iconic piece of history.

Since we were at LACMA, we had to take pics with/of the light poles.

That’s it for this mini adventure. I was so happy to get home and sleep.  I think next time I’ll get a good night’s rest before attempting to climb up a mountain again.